I’m heading to the Lower Keys here in a few weeks, and I would love to try for my first peacock bass and/or my first snook on the way down there. Anyone know any decent canals or ponds not too far from the road where I could pull off and fish for a little bit?
Or if not specific areas, any advice on what to look for when checking out roadside canals and ponds would be really helpful. Do peacocks like the same sort of structure as largemouths? Do snook hang out around structure like trout or redfish? I’m pretty clueless here.
Also, any tips on how to fish the canals for snook, or the ponds for peacocks? I would love to throw a fly at them, but would be happy just to catch one on anything. I’ll have artificials (including gulps), and I’m not above bringing some frozen bait with me on the long drive if it gives me a better shot at either fish.
I caught 100’s of peacocks on the fly, but in a private lake, so can’t give you much advice on public water. I used a white clouser minnow (with any variations of colors) about 2-3" long. I know very little about fly fishing, but from what I learned about peacocks, they 1) like a FAST presentation, and 2) they like a subsurface bait. I don’t ever recall getting a top water bite from them. Also, they will eat their own young. Be prepared to catch Jaguar Guapote, Mayan Ciclids, and other invasives while you are fishing for them.
Most of the fish I caught were in the 1-3 lb range, with the biggest being a 6 lb fish, and several around the 4 lb mark.
One more thing… Best time to fish for them is in the middle of the day when the sun is beating down… On the lake that I lived on, it had shallow edges, and I hardly ever saw peacocks before 10am. Once the sun came up and warmed up the water, they were generally roaming around in the shallows. Caught many fish from 11am-3pm on 90+ degree hot days.
Skinnee, thanks for the advice! I would love to catch one on the fly, and I’ve got several small white flies that should work well. Thanks for letting me know about the subsurface thing – I almost surely would have thrown some sort of bass poppers for them.
SCaveNJ, his thread actually got me thinking about it! I think he primarily fished around Naples for them, but he definitely could have done some on the east side as well. It’s worth sending him a message for sure.
I dont know about ponds…but you’ll find snook up close to the mangroves. Toss up into the brush, dont get snagged, and pull them out as fast as you can.
Go to Florida Sportsman’s forums, look at the freshwater, angler on foot, South, and Southeast topic subsections. There’s old topics you can look up with the search feature, then register and ask your questions on all of those subsections. You’ll find some info.